CG Reports

CG REPORT 1: The Impact of COVID-19 First Wave Restrictions on Cancer Care

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The COVID-19 pandemic created widespread global disruption to health, education, and economies. However, various restrictions that aimed to contain the effects of the virus, may have adversely affected non-COVID care such as cancer. 

Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide, accounting for nearly ten million deaths in 2020. Up to half of the cancers could be prevented by effective prevention strategies, particularly through avoiding risk factors, better early detection and the use of appropriate evidence-based treatments. We, therefore, sought to synthesise the evidence assessing the effects of restrictions on cancer care that were applied in 2020 compared to pre-pandemic levels.

We found 69 published studies that compared changes in the patterns of screenings, diagnoses, waiting lists and treatments for cancer during the pandemic period in 2020 with pre-pandemic levels. We found analyses for the following types of cancer: eye, gynaecological, liver, lung, maxillofacial, cervical, urology, head & neck, lung, skin, oral, breast, colorectal; as well as studies covering radiotherapy, screening programmes, and surgical cancer delay.

Pandemic-related restrictions appear to have had a large impact on cancer diagnostics and access to care. Reductions were reported in screening attendance, diagnostics, treatments, and deaths across various cancers during the pandemic’s first wave in 2020 and in some cases after the lifting of restrictions.